On May 1st motor-racing history was made, for Stirling Moss won the 1,000-mile Mile Miglia, the first time in twenty-two years that this has been achieved by a British driver, and I had the very great privilege of sitting beside him throughout this epic drive.
But let us go back to the beginning, for this win was not a fluke on the spur of the moment, it was the result of weeks, even months, of...

More vintage, less whine
There was a time when being Formula 1 world champion seemed to mean so much more than today
When I was first hooked on motor racing, what turned out to be a life-changing image was a magazine photo shown to me by my big brother, Rod. It depicted Reg Parnell in the works Alfa Romeo 158 at Silverstone. ‘Uncle Reg’ was crouched behind the steering wheel, muscular arms...

"I was a train spotter at school, until I began to read MOTOR SPORT. I hold Denis Jenkinson personally responsible for the mess I'm in." - James Weaver on the viscissitudes of the life of a racing driver.

The car which brought Gilles Villeneuve his first grand prix victory and placed the Canadian firmly in motor racing’s pantheon of legendary drivers. Words: Paul Fearnley. Photography: Alex P
This is the car in which Gilles Villeneuve learned his Formula One craft, won over (most of) his critics, became the apple of Enzo’s eye, captured the tifosi’s heart – and passed into Canadian lore. This is...

To conclude our trilogy of significant French motor sport anniversaries, we rewind 60 years to the day that Mercedes-Benz returned to Grand Prix racing – and obliterated its rivals
Writer Richard Williams
The first outsider to catch sight of the new Silver Arrow hadn’t a clue what he was looking at. Which was a relief to the Mercedes personnel, who allowed the photographer George Monkhouse to...

British Grand Prix, Aintree, July 1955
Mercedes controlled the first British GP at the Liverpool circuit with its historic victory for Moss – but could it have gone the other way?
Writer Simon Arron, illustrator Guy Allen
A purpose-built facility in a land of converted airfields, the three-mile Aintree circuit ran partly parallel to the famous racecourse of the same name and staged its first...

When they were new
An original road test taken from the Motor Sport archives, November 1971 | By Denis Jenkinson
During the summer of 1956 I saw drawings of the V8 Maserati engine, and later that year I saw the first cylinder block come out of the Maserati foundry. At that time I was very closely associated with the Maserati racing department, for in the spring of that year I was with Stirling...

The 750 Motor Club, founded by our own Bill Boddy, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. It continues to thrive thanks to low-cost rules, diversity and – as we found out – good, clean fun
Writer Ed Foster, photographer Mitch Pashavair
Variety is, according to the dictionary, “the quality or state of being different or diverse; the absence of uniformity or monotony”. There should really be a...

Letter of the month
Fear of the past?
Watching coverage of the German GP qualifying session, I was struck by how poorly F1 connects with its past. The Sky team made brief mention of the old Hockenheim, Jim Clark’s death and John Surtees winning in Germany, but their focus is on the here and now. I don’t blame broadcasters for that, but F1 should do far more to connect with the history of the...

When they were new
An original road test taken from the Motor Sport archives, October 1965 | by Denis Jenkinson
When I first heard about the Sunbeam Tiger project, the idea of putting a Ford V8 engine into a Sunbeam Alpine made me shudder a bit. Although the Alpine is a sound enough car it can hardly be considered a classic high-speed vehicle and I visualised this rather genteel two-seater...